1. Bama is vastly overrated. Is Bama good? Yes the very good. Can they beat an NFL team as some have suggested? Of Course not! Let's look at the #1 team in the nation - They play in the vaunted SEC, which means this year they played: Western Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss, Missouri and Tennessee.....6 teams that are all really bad this season. They played what was thought to be a top 10 team in Michigan, turns out Michigan has lost 3 games and isnt even rated anymore. Miss St? does anyone really think they are a legit team after getting two beat downs and their best win coming against a 4-5 Tennessee team? Bama has 1 quality win and that was in an intense rivalry game against LSU, a game which showed a number of holes in the Tide. Am i saying that the aggies are better? no, but i am saying Bama isnt unbeatable

2. Aggies offense is clicking. ok i know that the aggies offense struggled against the 2 really good Ds they faced this season in Florida and LSU, but look at what LSU just did to Bama and tell me the aggies cant at least match that. The Aggies have the best O-Line in the SEC, and and beat you throwing or rushing. LSU went for 435 yards with a QB who isnt half the player Manziel is

3. Experience. I know Alabama is the defending national champs, but the aggies have played in more tough games against better competition than the Tide so far this season, and they will be ready for this game.

4. The Aggies have something to prove. All they had to listen to is how they couldnt come in and compete with the SEC, but that all changed in a 3 point loss to Florida. They have ran over most SEC opponents this season and are 8 points away from being undfeated. They are going to be hungry for blood

5. Classic let down game for Bama. Fresh off a big win, i can see the Tide over looking the aggies in this one

1. Bama is vastly overrated. Is Bama good? Yes the very good. Can they beat an NFL team as some have suggested? Of Course not! Let's look at the #1 team in the nation - They play in the vaunted SEC, which means this year they played: Western Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss, Missouri and Tennessee.....6 teams that are all really bad this season. They played what was thought to be a top 10 team in Michigan, turns out Michigan has lost 3 games and isnt even rated anymore. Miss St? does anyone really think they are a legit team after getting two beat downs and their best win coming against a 4-5 Tennessee team? Bama has 1 quality win and that was in an intense rivalry game against LSU, a game which showed a number of holes in the Tide. Am i saying that the aggies are better? no, but i am saying Bama isnt unbeatable

2. Aggies offense is clicking. ok i know that the aggies offense struggled against the 2 really good Ds they faced this season in Florida and LSU, but look at what LSU just did to Bama and tell me the aggies cant at least match that. The Aggies have the best O-Line in the SEC, and and beat you throwing or rushing. LSU went for 435 yards with a QB who isnt half the player Manziel is

3. Experience. I know Alabama is the defending national champs, but the aggies have played in more tough games against better competition than the Tide so far this season, and they will be ready for this game.

4. The Aggies have something to prove. All they had to listen to is how they couldnt come in and compete with the SEC, but that all changed in a 3 point loss to Florida. They have ran over most SEC opponents this season and are 8 points away from being undfeated. They are going to be hungry for blood

5. Classic let down game for Bama. Fresh off a big win, i can see the Tide over looking the aggies in this one

final score: Aggies 24 Bama 21

While anything is possible, everything you say about Bama also applies to A&M & Miss St except, A&M hasn't beaten anybody while Alabama hasn't lost to anybody. The SEC teams continue to be defined by circular reasoning of success amongst themselves with nobody bothering to evaluate the relative value of their conference victories. A&M beating Miss St may go down as a victory against a "ranked team", but the only reason Miss St was ranked is they rolled out to a 7-0 record by beating 4 low division teams (1 SWAC, 3 Sun Belt), and 3 SEC teams that are a combined 0-18. All that a victory over Miss St proves is that you are better than some Sun Belt conference teams (although Kentucky and Arkansas have even lost to the Sun Belt). There is absolutely no excuse for Miss St. to continue to be ranked except for the flawed logic that they only lost to good teams, which will happen yet again this week when they lose to LSU. This trickles throughout the SEC where a mediocre Florida team elevates to #2 by beating South Carolina who has beaten nobody except Georgia who then beats Florida. So you're left with Georgia who has beaten nobody with only 0-6 Auburn, Georgia Southern, and 4-5 Georgia Tech sitting between them and an SEC East Crown and a date vs. Alabama who has 2 borderline bye weeks (Auburn & West Carolina) left after A&M before a "national championship" bid based upon winning an SEC that is a complete joke and is riding on reputation and painfully soft out of conference schedules.

The proof is in the pudding as long as you don't use something like # of ranked teams as your guide with Miss St showing why this is absurd. SEC teams lost 8 games outside of conference while the Big 12 has lost only 4. OU lost to Notre Dame who has beaten Stanford who has beaten USC. OSU lost to Arizona who beat USC. The lone "dog" in the Big 12 is Kansas who is responsible for the only other 2 out of conference losses. Vanderbilt has beaten 3 SEC teams but can't beat Northwestern. UT rolled Ole Miss 66-31 while A&M barely gets out of Oxford by 3.

It's obviously not a perfect comparison for the perception of conference strength, but it sure is telling to me that the two new Big 12 teams TCU & West Virginia came in having won their conferences last year and top 15 resumes this year and both lost to lightly regarded Texas Tech, TCU also lost to Iowa State and Oklahoma State and West Virginia lost to TCU and didn't belong on the same field with K State. Meanwhile a lightly regarded A&M team that lost 5 conference games last year in the Big 12 moves over to the SEC with a freshman QB and first year staff and plays the "superpowers" tight and blows thru the conference schedule like butter, while barely beating La Tech. Mizzou was much better last year, but still lost 4 conference games while beating A&M and this year they go the SEC and take first place Florida to the final 5 seconds.

Aside from never hearing the end of it around here, part of me is rooting for A&M to beat Alabama and end this farce of a self perpetuating national championship run for the SEC. I agree that A&M has a punchers shot which is pretty sad considering they could barely beat Ole Miss and La Tech on the road. I think this A&M team would get destroyed by K State, OU, and OSU like always, and their defense would get pummeled by Tech, WVU, and Baylor with the result a matter of who scores last just like La Tech. Iowa State is tough to figure, but they killed a Tulsa team that had Arkansas on the ropes last week. I always throw out the records vs. Texas but it's hard to forget a Texas team that got ripped to shreds by Mizzou, KState & Baylor to close the season still managed to limp to Kyle Field and beat the Aggies. If the likes of non FBS Sam Houston State replacing U of Texas on the November schedule doesn't tell you enough about the inherent softness of an 8 game SEC conference schedule vs. 9, the presence of 5 sub .500 teams (NOT including Vanderbilt and Ole Miss) should vs. 1 in the Big 12. 4 doormat SEC teams have a combined 1-23 conf record and the entire next tier (Miss St, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Vanderbilt) have victories only over some combination of those doormats and/or themselves. It is absolutely maddening to me that 4 or 5 SEC teams will go to major bowls having done nothing but beat up on 8 crappy teams and then trade one or 2 losses amongst their top tier.

I challenge ANYONE to connect Alabama to more quality wins via transitive property (beat a team that beat a team) vs. Notre Dame, Kansas State, and Oregon who should rightfully be above them especially after barely beating an LSU team that could barely beat Auburn and FCS Towson._________________

Oh look, we are trying to use the transitive property to figure conference strength. How cute.

The only team in the Big XII A&M isn't wiping the floor with is Oklahoma on the road. Kansas State is about as talented as Kansas, and the entire conference should be embarrassed that a K-State team with zero talent is rolling everyone.

I'm consistently astounded at the lengths you're willing to delude yourself to try and feel better about Baylor. The last and only great season your school ever had saw them get walloped by a "seventh place A&M team." But by your own use of the transitive property, that A&M was then better than Texas and Oklahoma, who both lost to Baylor, and better than Oklahoma State, who lost to Iowa State, who A&M also beat. See how stupid the transitive property is?

Alabama will play Kansas State in the national championship, roll them, and this will all be moot anyways._________________

If it was in college station I would say the Aggies might have a shot. They are going to get steamrolled in Alabama. Bama's D is better than LSU's and Manziel struggled against LSU's D._________________

Great win for the aggies! Just wish I was in cstat to celebrate with them.

On a side not, Ryan Swope made himself some money today. Possibly a 2nd rounder in my eyes, will see what he does at the combine. I could see the Pats taking him and letting Welker walk._________________
^CalhounLambeau on the sick sig^

Don't want to take anything away from the Aggies huge victory, but again, I don't understand why the story of the weak SEC is not getting told. It's like the SEC is getting a lifetime achievement award this year with nobody acknowledging that with Arkansas, Auburn, Tenn, and Kentucky all epically bad, Vanderbilt and Miss St have been elevated to middle class. Georgia and SC remain a solid in unproven upper tier, but Florida and LSU continue to barely get by schools like Towson and Louisiana-Lafayette. This weekend we learned:

1) A team that was 7th of 10 in the Big 12 last year can walk into the SEC (with a new coach and without 6 players now on NFL rosters) and beat its national champion in it's house.

2) The worst Missouri team in a decade is still better than Tenn and Kentucky. The same voters that keep propping up SEC based upon soft wins against one another had a 0-6 Tenn team ranked alongside KState and Notre Dame and Arkansas in the top 10 ahead of every Big 12 team but OU.

3) Florida may be better than South Carolina and LSU, but apparently they are also just 1 play better than A&M, Mizzou, and Louisiana Lafayette. Sorry folks, the "humans" need to account for the win differential that was taken out of the computers. Along with LSU barely getting by Towson and Auburn, these are NOT top 10 caliber teams.

4) Kansas State throttled the two top "new conference teams" that dominated their conferences with 55-14 win over West Virginia, and 23-10 over TCU. They have had one close game all year, to Iowa State the team that cost Oklahoma St its slot in the National Championship game last year.

5) West Virginia came into the Big 12 as it's top rated team and a QB that was already "Johnny Football" and has gotten killed 4 weeks in a row with Big 12 offenses putting up 49, 55, 39, and 55 on them. Oklahoma State is the latest to show that a middling Big 12 team still dominates what other conferences offer.

6) Alabama and Georgia will coast to the SEC championship by beating one SEC team that will be ranked by the end of the season. Kansas State's route to the Big 12 championship went thru 5 ranked teams. If Oregon gets there it will be thru 5 ranked teams. That "soft" Notre Dame schedule still will include 5 wins over ranked opponents. If the SEC winner is gifted another national championship bid despite it's Sun Belt conference quality out of conference schedule, there

7) I'll accept that the Big 12 and Pac 12 are the best offensive conferences in football and that the SEC remains the best defensive / run based conference. If you've paid attention to the NFL in the past decade, pass oriented offenses have taken over and A&M's victory at Alabama just offers further proof that this filters down to the college ranks.

Oklahoma St should have been given the chance to prove offense beats defense last year, 13-0 TCU deserved a share of title rights in 2010, and Texas shot in 09 was circumvented when Colt went down and they deserved a share in 08 as well as their loss to Tech was no worse than Florida losing to Ole Miss. In 07 Kansas and Mizzou were both denied shots with a 2 loss LSU team claiming a national championship. This SEC national title dominance remains a self fulfilling prophency where they are given a 50/50 shot nearly every year over other deserving teams and last years stupid 100% chance. I'm not saying the Big 12 has always been stronger, but each year in the past 5 there has been a current Big 12 with rightful claim for consideration so this assumption that the SEC just deserves a team in there every year is simply wrong in a season where the SEC is so clearly soft once you get past the top 4._________________

The future is bright at Baylor. We are doing what we are doing with marginal three stars around. Our defense has some big time recruits that are being redshirted this year, along with another huge defensive class this year. Oh, and the #1 WR in the nation (Robbie Rhodes) and a myriad of other talented offensive players. I'm really excited to see what Briles will do with some seriously talented recruits._________________All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost